Several western Washington treaty tribes affirmed commitment to the state’s shellfish initiative last week.
The effort is intended to promote growing shellfish and restoring ecosystems while improving water quality in Puget Sound.
“We need to keep our waters, our shellfish, and everything in tact so we can continue this for our future,” said Farron McCloud, Nisqually Tribe chairman, who welcomed attendees to a shellfish initiative event at the National Fish and Oyster Co. Jan. 15. “The future of our tribes, the future of people all around us, it’s so important and we can’t let it slip away.”
“We have to stop trying to figure out how much more we can pollute and change that culture and mindset and figure out how we can clean it up better,” said Jim Peters, Squaxin Island Tribe councilman.
Since the initiative’s launch in 2011, there have been improvements to the region’s water quality. As a result, nearly 2,500 acres of shellfish beds in Mason, King, Kitsap and Clallam counties have been re-opened after addressing water pollution problems. Dungeness Bay in Clallam County was one of those areas, and is of interest to the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.
The tribe supports the initiative, while it continues to work with local agencies and landowners to improve the water quality in the bay.
From the Sequim Gazette, the tribe’s shellfish management biologist Kelly Toy:
The broad group of local entities and individuals working together on Dungeness Bay’s health directly aligns with the goals outlined by the Washington Shellfish Initiative, Kelly Toy, shellfish management program manager for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, said.
Initiative Phase 2 goals seek to improve water quality, embrace strategies to address ocean acidification’s effects on shellfish, advance shellfish research, improve the permitting process to maintain and grow sustainable aquaculture, restore native shellfish, enhance recreational shellfish harvest and educate.
“Really what happened in Dungeness Bay mirrors the initiative,” Toy said. “To me, you need these partnerships and people working together because you can’t solve these issues alone.”
